Investment firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency company linked to the Trump family, for $500 million.
Investment firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency company linked to the Trump family, for $500 million.
The deal was signed four days before Donald Trump's second inauguration in January 2025, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Saturday. The transaction was never publicly disclosed.
Eric Trump signed the agreement on behalf of the company. The buyer was Aryam Investment 1, an Abu Dhabi entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon, who serves as the UAE's national security adviser and brother to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The $500 million investment was structured in two tranches. The first $250 million was paid upfront. Of that amount, $187 million went to Trump family controlled entities and at least $31 million went to entities affiliated with the family of Steve Witkoff, who co-founded World Liberty Financial and later became US Special Envoy to the Middle East.
The Journal reported it could not determine how the second $250 million tranche was distributed.
Sheikh Tahnoon controls more than $1.5 trillion in assets through his positions as chairman of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the UAE's largest sovereign wealth fund, and other state linked financial institutions including First Abu Dhabi Bank, Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company, and International Holding Company. He also chairs G42, an artificial intelligence company that received a $1.5 billion investment from Microsoft in 2024.
The investment made Aryam the largest outside shareholder in World Liberty Financial. Two senior officers at companies backed by Sheikh Tahnoon joined the company's board as part of the transaction, according to the Journal.
World Liberty Financial launched in October 2024 as a decentralized finance platform. The company later issued a stablecoin called USD1, which is pegged to the US dollar and backed by short-term government treasuries and cash equivalents. President Trump and Witkoff are listed as co-founders emeritus. The company is run by members of the Trump and Witkoff families, including Zach Witkoff as CEO.
In May 2025, another Tahnoon backed firm called MGX used World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin to complete a $2 billion investment in cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The transaction helped establish USD1 as one of the fastest growing stablecoins, with over $5 billion now in circulation.
The Trump administration agreed in 2025 to allow the UAE to purchase 500,000 of America's most advanced AI chips annually from Nvidia, reversing restrictions imposed under the Biden administration. A fifth of those chips are expected to go to G42, according to the Journal. The Biden administration had blocked access to the chips over concerns they could be redirected to China through G42's previous ties to Chinese technology firms.
President Trump said Monday he was unaware of the investment. "I don't know about it," Trump told reporters. "My sons are handling that. My family is handling it. I guess they get investments from different people."
A spokesperson for World Liberty Financial said neither President Trump nor Steve Witkoff had any involvement in the transaction since taking office. "Any claim that this deal had anything to do with the Administration's actions on chips is 100% false," the spokesperson told CNN.
Representative Ro Khanna, ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, announced Wednesday he has launched an investigation into the transaction.
